Lakeland High, Harrison: School Agreement Vital to All

Sunday

Jan 27, 2013 at 2:09 AM

An agreement unanimously approved by the Polk County School Board on Tuesday is expected to bring coordination and cooperation to two vital schools within the district: Lakeland Senior High School and Harrison Center for the Visual and Performing Arts.

An agreement unanimously approved by the Polk County School Board on Tuesday is expected to bring coordination and cooperation to two vital schools within the district: Lakeland Senior High School and Harrison Center for the Visual and Performing Arts.More importantly, by talking the two schools out of their 2012 applications to be charter schools — particularly the large-and-influential Lakeland High — a potentially disruptive rush to charter status by other district schools has been averted.The success of the negotiation by interim School Superintendant John Stewart — a priority assigned by the School Board — boosts his standing at a time when his influence and authority are valuable in mapping out paths for the School District and for the superintendant who will succeed him.Stewart is working in the gap between the unexpected retirement in November of Sherrie Nickell, then 54, after a scant two years in office, and the hiring of what is hoped to be a forward-thinking and long-term replacement.The agreement approved by the School Board on Tuesday, reported The Ledger's Merissa Green in an article Wednesday, was signed Jan. 14 by Stewart, the principals of both schools and the presidents of both school's parent associations. The pact was brokered by Stewart.

THE DEALUnder the agreement:■ Lakeland High and Harrison will run independently. They will put on separate proms and graduations. Their yearbook, however, will be combined.■ Harrison may publish a supplemental yearbook, focused on performances and the arts.■ The Lakeland School Advisory Council will gain administrative, parent, teacher and student representatives from Harrison. Lakeland High will add a parent representative to the Harrison Advisory Board.■ Lakeland High will hear Harrison’s suggestions on courses to be offered at Lakeland High. This had been a issue of discord.■ Policies and procedures for the use of facilities will remain in place.The pact is paying off already, said School Board member Hunt Berryman. A Lakeland High teacher told him that the two schools had a productive faculty meeting for the first time, he said."I think it helps to restore the trust between the district and the two schools," he said.The head of Harrison's parent association was complimentary as well."We're happy that we have closure," said association President Barbara Erickson. "We have something in place that will live on beyond the people involved."

INFLUENCEIt was important for the namesake high school for Polk County's largest city, Lakeland, to get along with Harrison. The School for the Arts was once separate, but in recent years the state has connected it to Lakeland High, with its students taking regular academic classes there.Reports from Harrison students of taunting from Lakeland High students were among the concerns raised as school differences escalated two years ago.Harrison took a methodical approach to separation from Lakeland High — wanting full control over its own operation — by carefully preparing an application to become a charter school.When Lakeland High learned of the application, it retaliated with a charter application of its own that was hastily organized. It failed last year when a faculty vote on whether the school should be converted to charter governance was conducted improperly.To take such discord toward the end of the 2011-2012 school year and convert it into productive collaboration by the two schools midway through the 2012-2013 school year is an accomplishment.The two school principals, both with the last name of Collins, but unrelated, credit Stewart for the turnaround and can be expected to produce a positive atmosphere that can inspire other schools within the district during a tough time for education."Dr. Stewart empowered us to reach resolutions that have enabled us to begin this process," said Lakeland High Principal Tracy Collins."I am grateful that Dr. Stewart and the School Board are working with us to ensure that Harrison will continue to provide a merit-based arts school for the students of Polk County," said Harrison Principal Craig Collins.